New York Yankees Catcher Austin Romine was strapping on his shin guards in the dugout when he heard a booming sound and immediately looked up.
It was CC Sabathia. He was angry.
“First dude,” Sabatia said.
It was September 27, 2018. Sabathia was bent on revenge Tampa Bay Raysafter diluted Andrew Kittredge A 93 mph fastball targeted Romine’s head and narrowly missed in the top of the sixth inning with the New York Yankees leading 7-0 at Tropicana Field.
He decided he would strike out catcher Jesús Sucre to lead off the bottom of the inning to send a message. He was going to do it even if it meant getting fired and ending the season with less than the contract incentive that would have netted him $500,000.
Knowing of the upcoming payday, Romaine briefly tried to talk Sabatia out of it. He knew Sabathia started the game needing to pitch seven innings to get the bonus, and the lefty was two runs shy.
“No,” Sabatia said as she walked away. “First dude.”
On Tuesday, the Baseball Hall of Fame will announce whether Sabathia will receive the honor for the first time.
When the voters of the Baseball Writers Association of America voted I thought about Sabatia’s autobiographyThey weighed all the stats and accolades. They reckon he was the star when the Yankees won the World Series in 2009, a feat the team hasn’t accomplished since. They noted his 2007 American League Cy Young Award winner with Cleveland GuardianPlus 3,093 hits, 251 wins and six All-Star appearances during his 19-year career. Some are probably still terrified of saving Sabathia Milwaukee Brewers He powered through the 2008 playoffs by making each of his final three starts of the season on three days’ rest.
But what voters couldn’t measure was the huge impact he had on his teammates and the respect he commanded throughout the game.
That has never been on more public display than in Sabathia’s final start of 2018.
After Sabathia forfeited a half-million-dollar bonus by smacking Sucre on his ass and ejecting him, he pointed to Kittredge in the Rays dugout and TV cameras could read his lips:
At the time, it seemed like a terrible move. He threw just 54 pitches over five innings, cruising, dotting his slider on either side of the plate and tying his right hands to the cut fastball that brought him back to life late in his career. He wouldn’t get another chance in the regular season to reach the spur.
But for Romine and head coach Aaron Boone, it was no surprise.
Throughout the game, the Rays chirped out of their dugout for Sabathia to throw inside and then strike out Jake Powers On the hand.
As Romine collapsed to the dirt to avoid Kittredge’s fastball, he had a simple question for catcher Sucre: “Why?”
For Sabathia, there was no doubt what would happen next. He had to protect his teammates, even if home plate umpire Vic Carapazza had already issued warnings to both dugouts.
While Romine was dusting himself off, Sabathia left the Yankees dugout to yell at the Rays. Boone stopped him and walked him to the dugout.
In the process, Boone told Sabatia not to retaliate. He knew this was a useless request.
“I remember saying, ‘Yeah, let’s not have him throw at anyone here,’ and I knew in my mind that I didn’t think he was listening to me in this place,” Boone said.
Sabathia Sucre’s fastball hit at 92.5 mph — the fastest pitch he’d thrown all night.
“It speaks volumes about the old-school baseball player he was, and the type of baseball player he created,” Romine said. “Nobody throws at your guys, especially in the head. I think that really unleashed something inside him. I would never say it was about me. It was about his team. It was about his goalie and his team getting attacked, and he was a guy who had protected his team his whole life.” Professional: You’re throwing to a nine-hole backup catcher, and that’s one thing you’re not going to throw to three-hole and four-hole hitters.
“This is the kind of guy you want to do battle with.” Aaron the judge He said at the time.
“I guess I don’t make decisions based on money,” Sabatia said. After winning 12-1. “I felt like it was the right thing to do.”
Romine played parts of eight seasons as Sabathia’s teammate. He said that Sabathia was a de facto leader in the Yankees clubhouse, and that the respect Sabathia received from his opponents was unlike anything he had ever seen.
“He’s still the only guy ever where major hitters generally come up and tip their hat to the opposing manager,” Romine said. “Well, they’d do it, and CC would sit at the water cooler, and the batter would tip his hat to CC. It was funny to watch.”
“He’s getting ready to go into the Hall of Fame because of his excellence on the mound and the numbers he put up and the things he did,” Boone said. “But I think you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who’s ever played with him who hasn’t made it near the top of his list of teammates ever. He’s such a connector. Easy to relate to. Easy to talk to. He made you feel important. He lived for the team.” On his personal matters.
“The greats who are like that, Jodie is a little bit like that too. I feel like there’s an underlying confidence that they know they’re going to get what they want and they’re going to do well. So they don’t really care about it. It’s about winning and the team, and they live it. CC lived it Over and over again.
At the end of the season, the Yankees gave Sabathia the bonus even though the ejection meant he came up short.
“In the grand scheme of things, the professionalism he had, the $500,000, it didn’t matter to him,” Boone said. It just doesn’t matter. The first thing for him was to be a teammate, to be a great teammate. The competitive part of things.
“In the end, it has added to the legend of CC.”
(Top photo of Sabathia after his ejection against the Rays in September 2018: Mark LoMoglio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
